Sekowo
The Federated Cities of Pan-Sekowo is a nation located on the continent of Dovani. It is bordered by the Dual Monarchy of Hulstria & Gao-Soto to the north, the Free Republic of Lourenne to the South-West and unexplored territory around it's other borders. Sekowo today is a much different place than it was in the past. History Pre-Colonial Sekowo Ancient Sekowo Sekowo has been the cradle of some of Dovani's most original and advanced civilizations, but unfortunately much of the historical evidence about the period before 200 BCE has been lost. However, archaeologists have been able to determine that the first human settlers in this area were several groups of nomads calling themselves *Shineyalane'es or *Shinyalane'es that came from the east around the 2nd millennium BCE. Many of them settled down in the southern region around Carcosa, and were the ancestors of the Shinjalan people. ]] The Shinjalans were the creators of a rich culture, one of the oldest and most original in Dovani. Information about these people start to abound around 200 BCE, when their civilization entered its Golden Age. They excelled in literature (where they produced Terra's oldest epic, The Katanid, and some of antiquity's finest works of poetry), philosophy (Platon and Tseynos are considered among Terra's most important and influential philosophers), historiography, architecture, natural science and many other fields of human knowledge. The Shinjalans seem to have been closely related to the Mayans living in nowaday's Lourenne, but unlike them they were less aggressive and expansionist. They were organised in republican city-states, the most notable being Carcosa, Kyme, and Akragonion, but which were eventually incorporated into the Tochi Empire. However, their language, Tsekwon or Classical Sekowan, has been adopted by the Tochi and spreaded around the entire Sekowan territory, later giving birth to Modern Sekowan, and currently being Sekowo's official language. The North-West was inhabited by the seafaring Kazulians, who arrived in this region around the second half of the 1st millenium BCE from Kazulia. They raided and colonized wide areas of Dovani from the 8th to the 11th century CE, and created an aggresive warrior civilization, until the Sekowan Kazulians were conquered by the Tochi-Showa in the 12th century. The Tochi-Showa, who inhabited the North-East of Sekowo, were a disciplined, religious, and pragmatic people, related to the Gao-Showa further in the North. Until around the 11th century CE, they were an unimportant group of tribes and city-states constantly at war with each other, but starting with this period, the previously unknown city of Terina became the center of a large empire, expanding from the Great North Dovani Plain in the North to the Huotet Plateau in the South. This empire lasted only for about two centuries, and its authority was just nominal in some regions, but it helped spread the superior Shinjalan culture and the Tsekwon language across the entire Sekowan territory. Thus the Sekowan culture when the first Artanian colonists arrived in 1728 was fairly unitary. After the fall of the Tochi Empire in 1284, when Mikado Romutsu Ogusuto was dethroned by a Kazulian invading tribe, the territory of Sekowo has been divided into many small kingdoms, the most important being Ronadum (with the capital at Pelias), Bissono (with the capital at Gelai) and Barfolar (with the capital at Leontinoi). The Shinjalan city-states managed to briefly regain independece in the 16th century, but they were conquered by Artanian conquistadors in the 18th and 19th century. The Artanians also conquered the many kingdoms in the North, much easier than the Shinjalan city-states, since there was no single Shinjalan political center which once overthrown would hasten the end of collective resistance from the indigenous peoples. Instead, the conquistador forces needed to subdue the numerous independent Shinjalan polities almost one by one, many of which kept up a fierce resistance. In the end, the entire Sekowan territory was occupied by conquistadors. The Colonial Period The Artanians divided what is now Sekowo into 2 viceroyalties, Puerto Grande and Costa Nueva, later to be reorganized in the Captaincy General of Sekowo and Bissono (La Capitanía General de Sekowo y Bissono). Sekowo was the only Davostaña-speaking colony in Dovani, and it was very powerfully influenced by Davostaña culture. The Artanians did not settle down in large number in Sekowo, instead they transformed it into large cotton and Sekowan-tobacco plantations owned by great land-owners of Criollo (Artanian) origin. And to work those plantations they used black slaves brought from Seleya and Northern Sekowan slaves, reputed for their physical resistance. There have been numerous conflicts in this period between the land-owners and the representatives of the royal government, as well as many slave rebellions. One such conflict began in 2190, when the Criollo-based elite, led by Filliam H. Muffman, protested against several new taxes imposed on the colonists, the fact that they were not represented in the national Cortes Generales, and the recent attempt of the royal government to abolish slavery in all colonies. The Independence and the Union Founding of Sekowo The protesters soon realized that the royal government was unwilling to respect their wishes when a large Artanian fleet carrying armed soldiers landed in Kroton. The colonists gathered in the city of Pelias and on February 1st, 2193 they declared Sekowo an independent and sovereign nation under the name of the Union of Sekowo. Because the Criollo colonists were very few, not more than a few tens of thousands, they were unable to form a large army by themselves, so they recruited Sekowan slaves, but refused to pay them any levies. The Sekowan army was therefore very weak, despite its considerable size, and lost several important battles, such as he battle of Katanus (2194). After several slave rebellions, the Criollos were forced to promise the emancipation of all slaves. The Sekowan army was reorganized and managed to win the decisive battle of Aragonion. The first President of the Union of Sekowo, Filliam H. Muffman of the Filliam H. Muffman Party, was elected in 2196. When the Cabinet Proposal of 2198 passed, the Liberal Conservative Party was greatly annoyed to be left out of the cabinet. Kyle Martin vowed to repay the snub. In 2200 there was a sudden spate of resignations. Rumors abounded that threats by the Liberal Conservative Party were behind the resignations. The 23rd century was a very turbulent moment in Sekowan history, with many successful or atempted coups d'etat, political assassinations and civil wars. In 2249 Kafuristani troops landed on Sekowan soil wishing to invade the country, and on the 13th of January 2250 the Sekowan legislative unanimously declared war on the United Majatran Republic of Kafuristan. The war was short but very difficult, and the inferior Sekowan military used popular support to reject the invasion using guerilla tactics. The war, which was caused by the alleged presence of secret Kafuristani training bases in Sekowo, was very costly for both sides. In 2402, Sekowo was brought under the control of Aretist parties, who renamed the country as the Aretic Archonate of Sekowo. Sekowo was than restructured as a feudal, agricultural nation subjugating the people, or Dema, under the rule of the bureaucratic caste, the Acolya, and the spiritual and political leaders of the state, the Avatara. Sekowo's western plains were converted into massive plantations harvesting Flavian, and the the state's investment in defense hardware led to the rise of a large industrial base in the south. The Sekowo Civil War Sekowo Civil War When the Aretist movement first came to power in 2402, a massive cultural and economic change was initiated intended to bring the country under strong Aretist sway. The installation of the power system was not ideal and The Avatara became absolute rulers through manipulation of the monetary and military resources of the nation. During the transition from Solentia to Sekowo, the brightest and most ambitious Acolya were purged from the movement. The modern Acolya were mere servants and the Dema was insignificant. The decade-long civil war which began in 2406 was one of the bloodiest and ideologically-charged in Terran history. The instability was not the fault of two competing sides, but many separate factions which came and went during this turbulent period. Some 1.4 million are thought to have died as a result of the chaos and carnage, and the infrastructure of the nation was greatly damaged. The Fall of Aretism and modern Sekowo Government and Politics The Federated Cities of Pan-Sekowo is a Federal Presidential Republic, with the Archon being both the Head of Government and Head of State, voted on every three years. The Sekowan legislature, the Apella, is a Unicameral Parliament comprised of 599 seats. Debate in the Apella has been known to, on rare occasions become violent, one such event incapacitating several representatives in 2439. Current Political Parties Geography & Climate Sekowo is comprised mostly of three different geographic zones. The Northern part of the country is comprised of high mountains, because of this the area has a temperate climate in the summer and cold and snowy winters. The middle of the country is comprised of small mountains and mostly hilly terrain. The climate in the area is a mixture of Temperate and Sub-tropic with Summer and Winter temperatures varying year by year, though in all it is a mild and comfortable climate. The Lower South-East of the country is comprised of the Western most part of the Great Dovani plains. The climate in the area tends to be very warm, with summer highs in the triple digits. Administrative Divisions The Federated Cities of Pan-Sekowo is comprised of five administrative divisions known as Exarchies. Since Sekowo is a Federation, each Exarchy has some semblance of a state itself, with a democratically elected Exarch and a legislative (Synedrion), but overall it is a subsidiary geopolitical unit of the Sekowan Federation as a whole. And unlike most Terran Federations, the cities that form the Exarchies have a very large internal autonomy, each having its own Constitution, its own legislative (Ekklesia in Carcosa and Hypermenstra, Gerousia in Antikleia, Apella in most others) and its own Archon (or Basileus in some cases). Most cities have some form of direct democracy (sometimes called Carcosan democracy), while others have representative democracy, constitutional monarchy, or aristocracy.